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ROBIN BROWN
Special to Florida Baptist Witness
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Editor's note: This statement was given at a public hearing on the proposed science standards for Florida held in Jacksonville last month.
Good afternoon, my name is Robin Brown. I am a recently retired teacher from Polk County. I taught for 31 years with the last 15 years being middle school science. I have traveled here today because I feel this topic is one of the most important topics in education and with the over 200,000 ratings of the new science standards, many people in Florida feel the same.
The Florida Science Curriculum Framework states that certain principles supporting the vision for science education should include the evaluation of new ideas and alternative ways of knowing. Students should be encouraged to make well-reasoned decisions and to use the processes of science successfully that include honesty, skepticism, creativity, curiosity, tolerance, open-mindedness and sharing, recognizing the diversity of ideas and acceptance of different views, according to the Framework.
One benchmark in the new proposed science standards stipulates that students "Explain how evolution is demonstrated by the fossil record, extinction, comparative anatomy, comparative embryolgy, biogeography, molecular biology and observed evolutionary change."
Most scientists once said that the fossil record shows that evolution occurred gradually. But today, scientists deny that gradual change can be seen in the fossil record. A few scientists now even question whether fossils necessarily show that evolution itself occurred. Harvard scientist Stephen Jay Gould says the fossil record does not show evolution occurring gradually. "The fossil record with its abrupt transitions," he writes, "offers no support for gradual change." Gould calls these repeated unfilled gaps, "the trade secret of paleontology."
There is a process in the field of science that any discussion of a theory include both "pro" and "con." This practice is observed throughout the scientific community except when the theory of evolution is involved. Whenever evolution is discussed, only the arguments "for" evolution are considered. Scientific evidence "against" evolution is consistently censored.
Sometimes the evolutionary process is questioned, such as gradualism vs. punctuated equilibrium, but all such discussions never question the evolutionary assumption.
Dr. Karl Popper, the world's leading philosopher in science states, "Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research program." Sir Fred Hoyle said, "The chance that higher life forms might have emerged through the evolutionary process is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junk yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the material therein."
In the words of Professor Phillip Johnson: "The question is not whether the vast claims of Darwinian evolution conflict with Genesis but whether they conflict with the evidence of biology." The more science educators try to justify excluding evidence against evolution from the classroom, the more apparent it will be that their views are based not on science but on dogma.
Paul Davies, a quantum physicist, is enthusiastic about design in the universe. But he is not the only current scientist referring to design in such glowing terms. Numerous books discuss the amazing design features of the universe: The Grand Design, The Anthropic Cosmological Principal and Perfect Symmetry are just a few. The topic of design in the universe is turning into a veritable industry.
Dr. Janice Crouse presented a paper at the America's Future Foundation Roundtable in Washington, DC. stating that Intelligent Design is a very hot topic. More than 700 scientists have signed a statement-"Dissent from Darwin." A Zogby poll reveals that 71 percent of the public favors allowing teachers to acknowledge the scientific controversy over the origins of life. The scientific journals are full of problems and criticisms of evolutionary theory. But major scholars aren't willing to break ranks to go public with their questions and doubts. In fact, there is so much "heat" that the debate is not longer merely "academic" and certainly not just "scientific." Much of the scientific community is acting as though the mere questioning of the Darwinian view is a calamity like it was a matter of life or death. Richard Sternberg who holds a PhD in evolutionary biology argues that "science only moves forward on controversy" and that Intelligent Design has "brought a lot of difficult questions about Darwin's theory to the fore." For today's bright minds, Intelligent Design has opened up new possibilites in the scientific arena. I say to them, "Go for it!" See how far your research and lab experiments will take you.
One day maybe Darwin's theory will be as outdated as the Flat Earth theory.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Brown is a member of First Baptist Church at the Mall in Lakeland.